Charles Olivier
Charles Olivier is an American film and television writer, producer, playwright, journalist and editor. He was born in London and grew up in the United States, the United Kingdom and several other countries. He studied at St. Mark’s School of Texas, earned honors in languages and comparative politics at the University of Texas at Austin, and studied screenwriting at New York University’s Tisch School of the Arts. While at NYU he helped start the Argo theatre company, writing and directing plays.
He began his career as a journalist in France for Agence France Presse and also worked on teleplays for TF1. In New York he wrote and edited for Rockstar Games and did documentary work for AP and Reuters. His films Deadline and The Nine Lives of Marion Barry drew attention: Deadline was Sundance Grand Jury Prize-nominated and sold to Dateline; Marion Barry aired on HBO.
Olivier has written and produced for PBS’s Frontline and Wide Angle, including the Emmy-winning 10 Days That Unexpectedly Changed America. He collaborated with Ezra Edelman on several HBO sports documentaries, such as Ghosts of Flatbush (an Emmy winner) and Magic & Bird: A Courtship of Rivals (Emmy-nominated and a Peabody winner). In 2014 Amazon released his audio drama Christmas Eve, 1914.
In 2023 he won an Emmy for The Redeem Team. In 2024 he was nominated for an Emmy for The Jinx, Season 2. In 2025 he worked on Eva Orner’s Surviving Ohio State with George Clooney and HBO, premiering at Tribeca and airing on HBO. He often collaborates with Owen Wilson. He splits his time among Los Angeles, New York and France with his wife and two sons.
Awards and honors include Emmy wins (2006, 2008, 2023), a 2011 Peabody, a Sundance nomination (2004), and a 2025 ACE Eddie nomination.
This page was last edited on 3 February 2026, at 19:07 (CET).